IT is a sobering thought given just how one-sided Scotland’s friendly match against Italy was here in Malta on Sunday evening.
Yet, Mark McGhee, the Scotland assistant manager, believes that England will be far more formidable opponents than the Azzurri were in their forthcoming Russia 2018 qualifying campaign.
The current FIFA world rankings would suggest McGhee has a point; Roy Hodgson’s side is currently in 10th place while Antonio Conte’s team is in 15th spot.
Despite the considerable ease with which they strolled to a 1-0 victory in the Ta’ Qali Stadium at the weekend, this Italian side is not considered an especially vintage one.
The same cannot be said of the Auld Enemy. Hodgson now has a potent blend of talented youngsters like Dele Alli, Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Raheem Sterling and more experienced players like Gary Cahill, James Milner and Wayne Rooney at his disposal.
England are expected to fare well in the Euro 2016 finals. McGhee confirmed their Group A games against Russia, Wales and Slovakia – who Scotland will also face in their World Cup qualifying campaign – and their outings in the knockout rounds if they progress will be watched in the coming weeks.
National team coach Stuart McCall, McGhee and manager Strachan will all, with a qualifier at Wembley coming up in November, be involved in the reconnaissance trips.
“I think England would be a lot better than Italy were,” he said. “Having said that, I think Italy will be even better than they were the other night as well. The surface was quite tricky even though it didn’t look it. The Italians will play better on a better surface when it really counts. But if I was putting a bet on England and Italy at the Euros I would pick England.
“I’m going over to watch them play Slovakia. Gordon is going over. We’re talking about making arrangements for Stuart to maybe go over as well. We are trying to cover as much as we can.
“Most of the benefit we’ll get will be from analysis, from Wyscout and that sort of thing. It’s always good to see it live of course, but it’s the work we do with our video analyst Kenny More, Gordon Stuart and myself that will be the most important. It’s not entirely critical that we’re at the games, but we will be.”
Strachan also knows that Slovakia, who defeated defending champions Spain and lost just one of their 10 qualifying games as they secured an automatic place in Euro 2016, will not be easy opponents for Scotland to overcome in Group F either.
The 3-1 triumph which Jan Kozak’s side recorded over Germany in a warm-up game ahead of the finals in Ausburg on Sunday underlined just how arduous a task they will face. They came from behind to stun the world champions at home.
McGhee, though, feels that not too much should be read into a game which was played in torrential rain. The Motherwell manager still fancies Joachim Loew’s team to launch a strong challenge for their fourth European Championship title in the coming weeks.
“There were a couple of goalkeeping errors and a bit of bad weather and the German team if you look at it wasn’t the team that we played,” he said. “I’ve got no doubts that it won’t be the team that plays in the Euros. We were taking Slovakia seriously as opponents anyway, but if they met Germany in the Euros I know who I would fancy.”
McGhee accepted the Scotland display against Italy had been bad – they only managed a single shot at target during the entire 90 minutes and even that his the side netting – but he is adamant the national team has made progress during an unsuccessful Euro 2016 qualifying campaign and can go into their Russia 2018 games with confidence.
He believes those who were absent on Sunday – most of the Celtic contingent were missing along with the players involved in the English Championship play-off final between Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday – will make a tangible difference.
As he helped to finalise preparations for the friendly with France in Metz in the Stade Saint-Symphorien on Saturday night, he said: “We came here determined to continue the same level of preparation. We worked hard at Mar Hall, came here and did things right. So such a disappointing performance was a bit of a surprise.
“In possession we could’ve been a lot better. But there was no lack of effort. Any Scotland team over the years can be credited with that. However, we’ve looked to try and improve the quality of performance and certainly we know it was poor and that was disappointing.
“But we have another game now, hopefully, to go back to a better level of performance. I think if you perm the Scotland squad you would say would start next autumn, there are players that I would hope would be available who aren’t here. That would be an improvement.
“There are other factors. Players are recovering from long seasons and from disappointments. Russell Martin was relegated with Norwich. So I think you have to take all of that into consideration. We know we’ve made some progress and we’re looking to take that progress into next autumn. It will be a lot better than what we saw the other night.”
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